Metapsychosis welcomes submissions of original essays, stories, poetry, reviews, interviews, music, film, and digital art for publication in both the online and (forthcoming) print versions of our journal. We publish for an audience that is open to spiritual realities—including the liminal, the psychedelic, and the weird… but also higher ethical, mystical, and contemplative modes—yet is comfortable with intellectual concepts and criteria. We are also, in our own way, activists, and aspire to publish work that makes a difference in the world—that is, in consciousness and culture—especially in ways that might not be immediately obvious but are nonetheless real. Before you submit your work, we suggest you become familiar with the content of our site.
Submissions are reviewed by our community of editors and rated by at least two reviewers, who determine whether we consider a piece excellent (high likelihood of being published), good (moderate likelihood), needing work (we’ll talk), or rejected (maybe try again). Final decisions are made in our monthly editorial meetings. Our aspiration is to give authors constructive feedback whenever we can.
Priority is given to journal supporters, collaborators, and active participants in our readers’ and writers’ groups, as well as creative members of Cosmos Co-op—however, our primary concern is to present the most outstanding work we can find that enriches the wider integral and visionary culture; thus we seek contributions from a variety of voices, from different cultural backgrounds and life experiences.
What we publish, we love
We are most devoted work that comes from a passionate center—from creators who are 100% committed to their craft and aesthetic ideals (including their own ambiguities!)—who love what they do, and are engaged with the history and collective dimensions of their form.
If you are an essay writer, you will sculpt clear and compelling sentences; hew to some version of reality; make complex and nuanced arguments; entertain multiple points of views with insight and compassion—and do it with personality and style. If you are are poet, storyteller, musician, filmmaker, or any other kind of imaginative artist, you will move us with the depth of your feeling, the lucidity of your vision, the power of your aesthetic ideas. We also respect (but don’t overestimate) technical accomplishment. We prize honesty more. The spirit of the offering counts.
You don’t have to be professional or perfect—a degree or letters after your name are not required—but you must first and foremost be a true practitioner of your craft, or willing to become one. If you’re not sure whether you’ve crossed that line into the zone that Octavia Butler calls “positive obsession,” take a chance on yourself!
Submission requirements
Metapsychosis accepts previously unpublished work—with exceptions if the piece has only appeared on your personal website. We also ask you to avoid simultaneous submissions. Our ability to give our attention to your work depends on the good faith that you are serious about publishing with us. We will try to communicate with you as promptly and clearly as we can, so that you can move on if it turns out we’re not a good fit.
In addition to the main content, we ask you to provide us with some meta-information, images (if you have), and supporting documents, if any. You should have these items ready before getting started:
- A very brief excerpt, teaser, or summary of your piece
- 3-5 tags or keywords that could be used to describe your piece (e.g., “horror, panpsychism, geopolitics, metafiction, subtle body”)
- Author bio and photo
- Artwork and images. Whenever possible, we use original community-contributed art, public domain, or Creative Commons licensed images to accompany written pieces. If you have artwork in mind that you think would work well with your piece, please upload it and include attribution. [optional]
- Cover letter. Please include a note if you want to give some context to your submission, or provide a general introduction to yourself or your work more broadly. [optional]
- Licensing. You can choose your preferred licensing (full copyright, or any of the Creative Commons options, which we encourage).
If your work is considered, we will give you feedback by email or in a private thread in our forum (if you’ve created an account). This allows our editors to follow the conversation or chime in if they have something to add. When your work is ready to go into production, we will provide you with access to a draft version of the page, so you can see a preview and offer corrections or approvals.
What to expect after submitting
Please allow 6-8 weeks for our editors to decide whether they’d like to work with you. We require a lead editor and at least one other editor to review each piece. Once two editors sign off, the lead editor will be in touch to serve as your point person.
During the editorial process, we may or may not offer varying levels of feedback or suggestions for improvement, depending on the submission. Our policy is to give authors full control over the final status of their work. However, we reserve the right to not publish anything that we don’t believe to be congruent with the ethos and aesthetic of the journal; we may learn through the process that it’s best to go our separate ways.
But that usually doesn’t happen. We prefer to work with collaborative spirits. After your work is published, we’ll ask that you help promote it by sharing the page to your social networks and communities, then stick around for any discussion that may develop. Every article published on the site is connected to a forum topic on Infinite Conversations for reader feedback.
If you and Metapsychosis are a good fit, we would love to publish you again and will invite you to become a member of the community, which will enable you to start your own projects on our platform, participate in reading, writing, and study groups, and give back to the community through serving as a reviewer, curator, or contributing editor in turn—should you wish to. In other words, we can build a relationship.
Compensation
We do not currently offer direct compensation for submissions—however, we plan to begin compensating authors on an equity basis, once we build up our subscription revenue. This is part of the idea behind Cosmos Co-op, our membership organization and creative community. We hope you’ll join us for the adventure.
